Books and Media

my book reviews - ramblings of a pathologically eclectic generalist
a film diary - with brief comments and the occasional review
Australian bookshops and publishers
rec.arts.books.reviews - book reviews on Usenet
Reading Notes - including Harry Potter criticism.

Support my book-buying habit by buying books - or music, etc. - from Amazon

Links and News

short stories about gay students from Batak Christian backgrounds, and their mothers Happy Stories, Mostly [my review]

from political divergence to possible futures Korea: A New History of South and North [my review]

How Cars Destroy Nature and What We Can Do About It Traffication [my review]

"ecologist Paul Donald looks at noise, air and light pollution among other harms, and at the effects on populations and species and ecosystems, not just on individual animals"

the boom in Japanese and Korean literature in English translation Booker Prizes

lumping the two together seems odd to me, as they seem quite different to me - at least as different as French and English literature

Stephen King, America's poet-laureate of car-based mayhem? Adrian Dub

if people aren't reading Moby Dick or Crime and Punishment, it doesn't mean they aren't reading novels CMSThomas

some 130 short essays treating quite narrow topics, offering a "pointillist" rendering of French history France in the World [my review]

a post-apocalypse novel told from the point of view of one of the zombies It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over [my review]

white gloves are not necessarily a good idea when handling rare books Unbound

Wendy Doniger's _The Hindus: An Alternative History_ and Fred W. Clothey's _Religion in India: A Historical Introduction_ - a review my review

Going to Church in Medieval England [my review]

"a fairly comprehensive survey — who was involved, what they did and when, and the broader context, social, institutional, architectural and liturgical"

"an accessible overview of one of the most mysterious of ancient urban cultures" Indus [my review]

(For more, see my blog Pathologically Polymathic or the latest book reviews.)

Other Resources

I don't really follow the publishing industry, or the latest in book gossip - I prefer to wait till five or ten years after a book's publication, when the fuss has died down a little and a longer-term perspective is available. If you're after book news I recommend the Complete Review's Literary Saloon, which also has links to other literary weblogs.